Posted on 03/31/2007 8:56:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sheriff Leo McGuire presides over foreclosure auctions in Bergen County, New Jersey, where the bidding for a home reached $1.2 million last June — a record for one of the wealthiest counties in the nation.
Homes sold on the auction block for as much as $852,000 this month — more than quadruple the median home price in the United States. County officials believe they are close to setting another record soon.
In Troy, Michigan, Dorothy Guzek, a credit counselor since 1988, has also seen the changing face of foreclosure.
Her clients, while predominantly poor and minorities, increasingly are neither. Nowadays, homeowners holding professional careers with six-figure salaries regularly drop by her office. More and more they come from upscale Michigan communities such as Independence and Clarkston — once the summer retreat for Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Co.
"Because of the financing that was possible, so many people bought the bigger house, the million-dollar house with the bowling alley or the tennis court outside," says Guzek, who works for GreenPath Debt Solutions, a nonprofit service based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. "People across all income brackets are having financial hardship." For those on the frontlines of the growing U.S. mortgage crisis, these are the early signs that the explosion of subprime loans made to mostly poorer borrowers is reaching higher ground. The damage is hitting homes financed through jumbo loans for more than $400,000 and so-called Alt-A loans that are a notch above subprime and a step below prime.
Americans already are facing foreclosure at a record pace, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Lenders started foreclosure actions against more than one in every 200 U.S. mortgage borrowers in the last quarter of 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
well thats all great
but about year ago certain party was saying how it was awesome that so many Americans own homes now
then after Katrina wiped out the south and economy with it
it was happy times because housing market was booming and there was no end in site because of this and that
now we are saying wow g you mean we let people borrow on crap.y credit
let me think average US household is 9k in debt and we are now wondering how there are credit risks
yeah ok sure why not
Why not buy what you can afford?
I can't see ME getting sympathy for buying a yacht that ends up being repossessed.
And sideways.
Children and Minorities Hardest Hit.
Just from what I've seen, there are tooo many younger 1st time home buyers, wanting more than their wallet can afford. I've seen it many times over here in SW Florida. It's sad but when they ask "What do you think about this", they don't want to hear, what they don't want to hear....
Living way below your means is a great habit, a sign of virtue.
Don't ever go into debt, except for student loans.
And if you do get student loans, don't major in something stupid!
Don't think it would have mattered. They had to have the house to get one up on the other guys at work, or on the girls at the tennis club. They gambled that they could just keep refinancing or that their incomes whould somehow rise to make up the difference. They lost.
I'm also not sympathetic towards materialistic yuppies who become overleveraged. I do feel bad for the financial neophyte first time home buyers who are getting or going to get creamed by subprime and interest only mortagage finance schemes.
All of us will be affected if the housing market melts down. Interests rates will rise, consumer spending will decline and the economy will slow down perhaps into a recession. This is a variation of the S&L crisis. As usual the bankers are irresponsible and the regulators are too slow to prevent the bubble from developing. Banking is too important to be left to bankers.
you left out green folks!
"IMHO, these individuals should have read what they were signing at the closing."
The closing officer would never stand for that - 2+ inches of paper! They get copies and can read and back out within - what 72 hrs?
This is all greed driven without competent advisors.
Most of the 'rich hotshots' knew what they were doing---if they got an 'interest only' loan they don't really have a nickel in the property and can well afford to lose it (they had to pay rent to live somehere anyway)---now they can go out and find a place they can afford to buy at the auctions that are showing up---the minorities, etc. that were 'conned' into buying way above their means, by 'sharpie' realtors, will get helped out by the government and we payers will foot the bill, as per usual---don't anyone cry for the nitwits that bought far above their ability to pay since we should all remember "stupidity and greed have NO statute of limitations"--if someone took a chance on a low interest loan hoping/expecting to get a better position or raise and it fell through for one reason or another, "such is life"---if they have any guts they will just dig in and make it through as many others have done when adversity strikes during their lives.
Most of the 'rich hotshots' knew what they were doing---if they got an 'interest only' loan they don't really have a nickel in the property and can well afford to lose it (they had to pay rent to live somehere anyway)---now they can go out and find a place they can afford to buy at the auctions that are showing up---the minorities, etc. that were 'conned' into buying way above their means, by 'sharpie' realtors, will get helped out by the government and we payers will foot the bill, as per usual---don't anyone cry for the nitwits that bought far above their ability to pay since we should all remember "stupidity and greed have NO statute of limitations"--if someone took a chance on a low interest loan hoping/expecting to get a better position or raise and it fell through for one reason or another, "such is life"---if they have any guts they will just dig in and make it through as many others have done when adversity strikes during their lives.
I don't cry, I clap my hands. Yay, for personal responsibility.
$850,000 mortgage for $1999 a month!!!! CLICK HERE!!!!!!!!!
Six-figure salaries and no way to make the payments. Am I supposed to be sad for them? What will they do? Give up the country club membership? How will they live?
Why would interest rates rise?
A record for the past few years, but I don't think it's even back up to historical averages.
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